By David Harbilas

The idea for this sauce comes from my boss, Chris Chung, Chef-Owner of Aka Bistro in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

He originally made a sauce of Vidalia onions that were juiced and cooked slowly to make a rich, sticky, sweet and sublime glaze.

He served it with braised short rib, and now we serve it with grilled hanger steak.

Here, I am taking his original idea and simply adding tomato juice to it and reducing it further.

It is a very simple sauce to make, but Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

We sometimes forget that tomatoes are a fruit, perhaps because so many tomatoes sold in supermarkets are full of acid and lack the sweetness we’ve come to love the best ones for.

Cherry tomatoes seem to be a safe bet when it comes to a balance between sweet and sour, and a simple salsa of cherry tomatoes and red grapes make a wonderful accompaniment to fish, chicken, or in salads.

Tarragon is, to me, a perfect companion to grapes, and just to insure that any lingering acidity from the tomatoes doesn’t overpower the sweetness of the grapes I add a little honey to tie it all in.

Make 2 cups

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
• ½ cup red grapes, sliced
• 1 tablespoon shallots, minced Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

Yes, this does contain tomatoes!

In fact, roasted red pepper is just included as a “seasoning” to a regular homemade ketchup recipe.

The entire process is quite simple, though time consuming.

For a short-cut, simply puree roasted red peppers and fold into commercial ketchup. The results are a bit more satisfying, however, if done from scratch.

Makes about 4 cups ketchup

• 1 red pepper, roasted, peeled, and seeded
• 2 pounds red globe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and rough chopped
• 1 pound roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and rough chopped
• ½ cup onion, diced Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

The other day my dad and I were talking about the time he saw the best tomato plants in town.

He used to work for the Board of Health in Louisville, Kentucky and used to inspect the sewage treatment plants.

In the plants there was an area where they would place the sludge or solids that do not dissolve in the sanitation process.

In this sludge, tomato seeds and corn kernels remained and were remnants of what the human body will not digest. Through this nutrient rich sludge, tomato plants would grow abound but the fruits of these plants could not be consumed.

From this discussion we bounced to the direct ways, we in the past, have saved our tomato seeds. In the past few years, Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

I doubt I’m the first one to think of this, so don’t send me any letters of congratulations.

And I doubt mine is the best either, but I can tell you that a good shortcake will depend greatly on the quality of the fruit, whether it’s tomatoes or strawberries, as is traditional.

Rather than use whipped cream this version makes use of a goat cheese mousseline, a sort of whipped cream held up with gelatin.

Served with a salad, this is a great lunch entrée or a nice side dish with fish.

Serves 2

• 3 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 1 tablespoon shallots, finely minced Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

My boss recently approached me to ask that I change an item on our menu.

It’s never easy to hear criticism about one’s food at the professional level, but it helps the think of these moments as opportunities to do something new.

He opened Julia Child’s first cookbook, recently depicted in the movie Julie and Julia, and found a recipe for a potato gratin with tomatoes.

Rather than try to make any improvements on the original I thought it might be best to offer a simple alternative. Child’s version calls for a simple tomato sauce made with peeled, seeded, and diced tomatoes baked in layers of scallop cut tomatoes.

Here the sauce is replaced by a layer of tomato confit so that the final result is similar to a terrine or torte. In fact, this entire dish can be cooked inside a tart shell or puff pastry to make a sort of tart, which would make an excellent lunch entrée served with a simple salad and glass of wine.

Serves 4

• 5 potatoes, peeled and cut ¼ inch thick
• 6 tomatoes, peeled and cut into filets
• 2 cloves garlic Read the rest of this entry »